Mangrove expansion into temperate marshes alters habitat quality for recruiting Callinectes spp.

Abstract

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 573:1-14 (2017) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12176 FEATURE ARTICLE Mangrove expansion into temperate marshes alters habitat quality for recruiting Callinectes spp. Cora A. Johnston1,3,*, Olivia N. Caretti2,4 1Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA 2Department of Biology, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, St. Mary’s City, MD 20686, USA 3Present address: Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA 4Present address: Department of Marine, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA *Corresponding author: coraann.johnston@gmail.com ABSTRACT: Beyond direct habitat loss, climate change can alter habitat quality and availability by stimulating shifts in foundation species ranges. Tropical mangroves are proliferating at the intersection with temperate saltmarshes and continue moving poleward with unknown consequences for inhabitant marine fauna. We expected that mangrove and marsh foundation species differ in habitat quality, due at least in part to differences in their structural attributes, such that shifts from marsh to mangrove wetlands alter habitat availability for wetland inhabitants. We coupled recruitment surveys and laboratory experiments to assess the influences of foundation species’ structural and non-structural attributes on Callinectes spp. recruitment, preference, and survival among mangrove and marsh habitats. Recruitment was evident in Spartina alterniflora and Rhizophora mangle intertidal habitats but not in Avicennia germinans. In laboratory trials, S. alterniflora was preferred in the presence of predation risk and provided the highest probabilities of survival, indicating that settlers can distinguish among ecotone vegetation types and that their choices correspond to habitat quality. Survival probability and recruit persistence were comparatively low in mangrove habitats. The differences in habitat use, preference, and survival identified in this study suggest that mangrove expansion is diminishing wetland habitat for Callinectes spp. It also reveals that changes between habitat-forming species, and not just the loss of structure per se, can affect habitat quality, such that foundation species may not replace one another functionally where they displace each other spatially. KEY WORDS: Foundation species · Climate change · Biogenic habitat · Range shifts · Recruitment · Survival Full text in pdf format Information about this Feature Article Supplementary material NextCite this article as: Johnston CA, Caretti ON (2017) Mangrove expansion into temperate marshes alters habitat quality for recruiting Callinectes spp.. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 573:1-14. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12176 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 573. Online publication date: June 21, 2017 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2017 Inter-Research.